Family Ties
by i like f00d
Summary: After Zatanna's teammates don't return from a mission, Batman sends Zatanna to investigate. But what will he discover in the process?


**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. **

**Adapted from Chalantelle.**

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Chapter 1: Unsuited

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was then only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist.

Zatanna Zatara admired the gloriously drab scene occurring immediately behind the pasty window panes and filthy glass before her. The paintwork upon the panes was a mess; the brittle, ivory scraps were cracked like slim fractured rocks, freshly eroded by the dense rubble of an active volcano. The girl in question was picking at those panes, watching the fragments plummet torpidity to land on the window ledge on which she was leaning on.

What the modicums had came to rest on was only a little less ramshackle than the panes they had been originally painted on. Zatanna's french-manicured fingernails drummed vexatiously against the ancient flakes of what was left of the coating of paint. Each tap allowed more flecks of the varnish to become airborne, yet for only a second, but still as if in a hurry to leave.

Beating one's nails against an ill-painted object created a hugely vociferous din. In such a room where the only objects that the audio could rebound off were either antiques or non-existent, the drumming would drive any other individual to the brink of insanity. Most would associate anticipation with the tapping of nails against a solid object, and in the case of Zatanna, that would be completely veracious.

For our protagonist, the anticipation was due to the lack of comrades in their cave. At that hour on a dreary Saturday, she had expected that because they could find the time easier on a weekend, at least _one_of her seven associates would have at the dropped in and perhaps mentioned that they would not be returning that day. But alas no such occurrence, which had lead to Zatanna peering through a dirt-inhabited window at a bleak scene she had gazed upon for the most part of an hour.

_I suppose I should do something. The team haven't come in yet; I wonder if that is an okay thing, or perhaps I should be worried._Zatanna hypothesised, ceasing the drumming for a short while to collect the thoughts of hers which due to lack of concentration had scattered to what seemed like the four corners of the earth, judging by how long this took.

The girl exhaled. Perhaps they would not come. Perhaps they would. But all perhaps aside, what could they all be out being occupied by at the same time? That she was not included in?

Surely it would not be something as futile as watching Wally eat a vast amount of consumables, or Dick hack several computers to allow him access to whatever files he wished, even those deemed inappropriate? In the cave, that was a daily concept, nothing out of the ordinary. If they had wished to see something so immature, the team should have stayed in the cave. The reason for this was simply because the cave was _full_ of computers and edible items, most of which were not food but would in due course be eaten by Wally. _Why am I still here?_ Zatanna questioned herself, snapping off more fragments of rigid paint.

She then flicked her ebony hair out of her line if vision. Without further contemplation, the girl raised to her feet, and proceeded to traipse in a semicircle around the wooden frame of the chair she had been perched on for just under an hour. As she advanced to leave the room, Zatanna observed the area she had just left. A silken, rose-stencilled cream pillow had been shoved off the seat in question. The girl crouched down and replaced the cushion upon the seat, and then progressed to leave the room which had been her chamber for a matter of two months.

Zatanna then pressed on with her mission to locate her allies. Brushing down her now unclean navy blue skinny jeans, she scrutinised the mission brief room._Nobody. Not even Torna_- Her thoughts began, but thus were interrupted by an unfamiliar tone coming from the rarely-used alarm signal upon the north wall. "Shuhs." Zatanna spoke, unknowing of what else she could do at that precise moment in time. Immediately, the din ceased and all was back to normal. Except for _one_ thing.

A holographic computer had appeared out of thin air, increasing Zatanna's trepidation rapidly. The screen donned a red screen with bold white writing, reading a message intended for her.

_Recipient: Zatanna_

_Location: Mount Justice_

_Code: Red_

_From: Batman_

_Message: We cannot seem to be able to find your teammates for a matter of four hours, we sent them to Happy Harbour at 10:00 am precisely. The mission was simply an observe and report, we wonder if perhaps you know where they might be. Since you were not appointed that mission, you should find the team. Report back._

_So Batman sent them on a mission. Without me_. Zatanna pondered possibles reasons for this in her mind, reaching the conclusion that they had not wished to disturb her due to the mildly depressed state she was in. Perhaps they thought that at my core, I'd never be a hero; I was a just an infantile burden. But despite the League not entrusting_her_ with that operation, Zatanna knew that she would have to step up to the plate to save the ones who were.

Grabbing a leather jacket which she then pulled over her white tank top, the girl stepped out into the open world, which donned a cape of mist and a mask of pure ashen skies that stretched into the distance for miles.

"Etativel em!" She chanted, almost instantly floating in mid-air. You could not _really_ call it air, it was more a thick, Victorian London smog. But as there were no nearby factories, you would conclude that it was all real. But it was _barely_realistic.

Zatanna elegantly hovered over Happy Harbour, eyeing things from a birds-eye view. It was near impossible to see anything but the radio tower through the fog. She descended lower, hoping to get a clearer analysis of the situation down at the wharf. Once the girl had landed on the power plant, she immediately noticed that not one puff of smoke emerged from the chimneys; yet there was manufacturing smoke all around. It could not have been real, Happy Harbour was a bright and sunny place everyday, there was _never_ a cloud in sight!

There was an abnormal silence about the town, though Zatanna had noticed that the windows in each house were glowing with life. She assumed that they were all safe, yet bound to the realm of indoors for once due to the misty fog shrouding everything. As she passed the Bowl-o-Rama, a chill ran down her spine. Whenever that happened, she knew there was something wrong. Zatanna kicked the door down, as she had noticed it was locked, with a brute force that should not of come from her, but that of Superboy.

_Did I just break down an innocent door?_ Zatanna questioned with a sigh in her head. But her hypothesis was wrong; it was locked for a reason. For there was the Injustice League, looking as devious and dastardly as per usual.

"Nice of you to join us." Count Vertigo almost cackled as he spat the words in his Vlatavan accent.

"Where are they?" Asked in the same tone that the Count had used.

"Oh, they're safe. Kind of. Well, not really!" Joker cackled, laughing and grinning the grin that send another shiver down Zatanna's spine, the girls' eyes widened slightly, hoping her friends were safe.

"_Don't_ lie to me. I just want them. I will get my team back, and I will have them back _now! Nothing will stop me!" _Zatanna grabbed the collar of the latter speaker, growling into his face while sheer anger bubbled to her surface. She was simply irritated that they would not leave the team_alone_ for once. It was getting beyond the vile, _cruel_ joke that it had been intended to be.

"Cool it, little girl." Poison Ivy snickered from the corner, stroking what she like to call "_one of her babies_", that most people referred to as thorns in their sides.

"I will _not_ ask again. I have been reasonably resistant to your games, and I am _sick_ of them. I would like you to just hand my friends over, before I have to fight you, because you _know_ I would." Zatanna added, dropping her hostage and turning to face the other Injustice League members.

"_Fine_, have them!" Vertigo gestured to a bowling lane that had previously been out of sight, where the pins were the team. _Her_ team.

The likes of Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis, Miss Martian, Superboy and Red Arrow were bound together, inhibitor collars around necks. Zatanna smelled a trap. It was a _foul_, _dirty_ trick to get her tied up, too. It _wasn't_ going to work.

"Nice try." The girl sneered as she wheeled around on the balls of her feet. She then proceeded to pick up a bowling ball, and chuck it down the lane. The lane, and the robot doubles, exploded with the first touch of the ball.

"Where _are they?_" Zatanna asked for the second time, with more urgency this time.

"They're not here, _dear child._" Wotan told her, in an extremely ridiculed voice. His aura spoke to the girl, telling her that he speaks the truth.

"They're not _in_ the Bowl-o-Rama, sweetie," Ivy spoke in the same mocking tone.

"Lett em erehw ym setammaet era!" Zatanna chanted, immediately getting a response.

"They're at the Sandbar Internet café." Wotan blurted, as Count Vertigo spun to face him with a glare, to which he only shrugged with a look of oversight.

"You won't get there in time." Vertigo sneered, laughing with pure insolence.

"Tropelet em ot eht rabdnas éfac!" She chanted, laughing as the League tried futilely to grab her before she left. In the instant, the girl was in the Sandbar Internet café, where Kaldur had stashed Dr Serling Roquette as she finished creating the fog. That was an eventual day for the team, she had not been initiated yet, but had heard much about it.

"Mm-mm,_Mm!_" Was the general response of the team, who were gagged and bound much as their doubles were in the Bowling Alley, complete with inhibitor collars.

Taking off Robin's mouth gag, Zatanna was spoken to.

"Theres a _bomb!_ Untie me so I can disarm it!" The boy wonder pleaded, as she obeyed. The girl then progressed to unbind her friends, but the happiness was short-lived, as an all-to-familiar voice sounded from behind her.

"Took you long _enough_; I guess I should have expected nothing less of one who's only magic is completely infantile."

_29...28...27...26..._

_Zatanna's eyes widened. A bomb, her teammates' lives at risk, herself at rick with this mysterious figure, lurking in the shadows._

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**Thanks to Chalantelle for letting me write this:) Please review, it means a lot to me and help me carry on!**

**-i like f00d**


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